Foundation Award for Teaching

I. Philosophy of Teaching

The instructor draws a path for students to follow, shepherds them along that path, evaluates their progress, instills integrity, provides appropriate feedback, is accessible to offer necessary assistance, and fairly assesses students’ attainment of course objectives.  Effective teaching necessarily and most importantly requires an appropriate level of challenge and extends far beyond simply sharing facts; it instills intellectual curiosity and promotes life-long learning. Truly educated students leave each course prepared to do more than they were shown. Students are able to identify and solve problems on their own using the tools they have acquired. As teamwork is important for students throughout their coursework, collegiality is of paramount importance for faculty; it provides synergy in the teaching/learning environment since we all can learn from one another. The instructor’s success is measured by their students’ success – not in their course, but in life.

II. Examples of Courses/Topics

I have taught the COB core Financial Management course for over 20 years. This course provides the finance foundation for all business majors. While the course provides the mathematical tools to value financial assets and other investment opportunities, it also provides a conceptual understanding of many financial principles that are essential for all business majors. My love of that course material led me to author the textbook that we use along with Jeff S. Jones, Financial Management – Principles and Applications (Great River Learning).

I have had a special interest in helping students start along the path to earning their Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter by administering a scholarship program to assist them financially and offering an independent study course for the first of the three CFA exams to give them a head start on that path upon graduation.

I enjoy pedagogical research. Sharing ideas, tools, and approaches to teaching benefits the reader as well as the writer; organizing one’s own thoughts about their teaching makes them a better teacher.

Finally, I have a fondness for Study Away. I have led multiple programs to Europe as well as New York City. Seeing is believing! Some students need encouragement to “get out there,” and benefit greatly from experiencing different cultures and simply learning from the travel process, as do I!

III. Future Projects

I hope to continue to enhance the textbook by creating more ancillary resources for students and providing much support and encouragement to Jeff Jones as HE writes an additional chapter!

I hope to continue to lead Study Away programs to New York and to international destinations that I love or have yet to visit.

IV. Topics related to teaching and of interest to the University Community, for which you are available for presentations and/or consultations (e.g., presentation tools, special topics, technology, public affairs).

• Online learning
• Study Away
• Textbook authorship with embedded resources